{"id":1061,"date":"2011-03-23T18:25:25","date_gmt":"2011-03-24T01:25:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/1hope.org\/hopeblog\/?p=1061"},"modified":"2024-12-27T16:45:35","modified_gmt":"2024-12-28T00:45:35","slug":"pges-smartmeters-apparently-send-your-data-un-encrypted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1hope.org\/hopeblog\/pges-smartmeters-apparently-send-your-data-un-encrypted\/","title":{"rendered":"Privacy Violation: PG&#038;E&#8217;s &#8220;Smart&#8221;meters Apparently Send Your Data UN-Encrypted !"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The job of a Burglar and a Stalker is now easier than ever &#8211; thanks to Smartmeters.<\/p>\n<p>(Update: Dec 2024: Its been over a decade since I first wrote this warning. I&#8217;ve decided to investigate the &#8220;smart&#8221;meters wifi data and see if PG$E is still sending your data UnEncrypted. If they are, I will file a formal complaint with the FBI.)<\/p>\n<p>I just found a revealing section of PG&#038;E&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.prwatch.org\/books\/tsigfy.html\">Public Relations<\/a> materials (always of dubious factual accuracy) that indicates that <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20160307031030\/http:\/\/www.pge.com\/en\/myhome\/customerservice\/smartmeter\/howitworks\/index.page\">your personal data sent from your so-called &#8220;Smart&#8221;meter is <u>NOT<\/u> encrypted or coded.<\/a> <\/p>\n<p><!--more-->It appears that your personal energy use data is <u>not encrypted until after<\/u> it is collected by a neighborhood device called an &#8220;access point device.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>In the meantime your uncoded plaintext (completely readable) data may have been relayed and sent by half a dozen (my estimate) or more neighboring &#8220;smart&#8221;meters before it gets to the &#8220;access point device.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>PG&#038;E&#8217;s document says &#8212; <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cThe electric network access point collects meter data from nearby electric meters and periodically transfers this data to PG&#038;E via a secure cellular network. <U>Each<\/U> RF mesh-enabled device (<U>meters<\/U>, relays) is connected to several other mesh-enabled devices, which function as signal repeaters, <U>relaying the data to an access point<\/U>. <U>The access point device<\/U> aggregates, <U>encrypts<\/U>, and sends the data back to PG&#038;E over a secure commercial third-party network.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In English this means \u2013 <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Combining and Collecting Step: Each smartmeter captures and transmits your neighbors signals (or vice versa), then your combined personal data is relayed using radio signals to an access point device; and collector of neighborhood data. <\/p>\n<p>Encryption and Transmit Step: Only then does your data get encrypted (coded) by the \u201caccess point device.\u201d Then the combined and encrypted data is sent to PG&#038;E over a (now irrelevantly secure) cell-phone line.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the PG&#038;E Webpage &#8212; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pge.com\/myhome\/customerservice\/smartmeter\/howitworks\/\">http:\/\/www.pge.com\/myhome\/customerservice\/smartmeter\/howitworks\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>That means your neighborhood burglar doesn&#8217;t even need special software to crack your data &#8211; because it is not coded until it has been sent by radio signals through the air of your neighborhood.<\/p>\n<p>This contradicts everything PG&#038;E&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.prwatch.org\/books\/tsigfy.html\">Public Relations<\/a> spinners have told government officials in public meetings. When asked about hacking the data they have insisted that they use the highest quality encryption software, and &#8220;no one has ever broken into a cell-phone network.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>They &#8220;forgot&#8221; to tell us that our personal power use data can be captured by anyone &#8211; long before it ever gets to the encryption step.<\/p>\n<p>Now burglars can tell when you are away from home with a simple standard laptop and an inexpensive WiFi card.<\/p>\n<p>Of course you already knew we can&#8217;t trust <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/2010_San_Bruno_pipeline_explosion\">PG&#038;E (who killed 8 people with their San Bruno fireball)<\/a>, and we can&#8217;t trust the PUC &#8212; it was their systematic incompetence and negligence that allowed <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/2010_San_Bruno_pipeline_explosion\">PG&#038;E to foment the deadly fireball that destroyed 37 homes.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><center>___________________<\/center><\/p>\n<p>1. Notice how it clearly says &#8220;The access point device &#8230; encrypts, and sends the data back to PG&#038;E&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>However it never says or implies that each individual SmartMeter\u2122 encrypts your data.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The job of a Burglar and a Stalker is now easier than ever &#8211; thanks to Smartmeters. (Update: Dec 2024: Its been over a decade since I first wrote this warning. I&#8217;ve decided to investigate the &#8220;smart&#8221;meters wifi data and &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/1hope.org\/hopeblog\/pges-smartmeters-apparently-send-your-data-un-encrypted\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[25,19,32],"tags":[55],"class_list":["post-1061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-smartmeters","category-bad-acts","category-incompetence","tag-san-bruno"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1hope.org\/hopeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1061"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1hope.org\/hopeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1hope.org\/hopeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1hope.org\/hopeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1hope.org\/hopeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1061"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/1hope.org\/hopeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3360,"href":"https:\/\/1hope.org\/hopeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1061\/revisions\/3360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1hope.org\/hopeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1hope.org\/hopeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1hope.org\/hopeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}